Lady Escapade by Amanda Scott

Author:Amanda Scott [Scott, Amanda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Fiction, Historical, Regency, (¯`'•.¸//(*_*)\\¸.•'´¯)
ISBN: 9781480415270
Publisher: Signet
Published: 1986-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

9

LORD RODERICK HAD THE grace to look ashamed of himself. “From time to time, I confess to an unquenchable urge to stir his temper,” he said, speaking low. “Come into the library if you wish to speak with me privately. No one will be in there just now.”

“That’s what we thought in the Double Cube room, Rory.”

“Oh, the devil take Simon and his jealousies! I have had a surfeit of them.”

“Then tell him about your Sophie,” she suggested quietly, “or allow me to do so.”

“No, Diana.” He closed the door of the library after first assuring himself that no one had been near enough to overhear their last exchange. “You don’t understand.” He sounded weary. “They wouldn’t understand. Sophie is as well-born as we are—I met her at the Duchess of Devonshire’s ball at the end of the Season, after all—but Papa and Simon both think I should set my sights on someone like the Fane wench. I tell you, I can’t do it. I wish George Villiers joy of her, but she would drive me to Bedlam in a week. On the other hand, I’ve no wish to have Papa or Simon ringing a peal over me.”

“Simon won’t,” Diana told him, “at least not about Sarah Fane. He likes her as little as you do, and he told me that he thinks the better of you for not showing an interest in that quarter.”

“Did he, indeed?”

“He’s your twin, Rory. I should think you would understand a little better than you do how his mind works.”

“Do you understand him?” he countered. “You’re his wife.”

“That isn’t fair. I’ve not known him a full year yet, whilst you’ve known him all your life.”

He turned away from her. “I guess I’ve never tried to figure him out,” he said quietly. “I’ve always felt like his shadow, you know, never really like his brother.”

“Do you now expect me to wring my hands with pity for you, Rory?” she asked calmly. “Because I won’t. I know exactly the sort of nonsense you’ve had to stand, first from your mother and later, though less blatantly, from Lady Ophelia. Simon is the good twin, and you are the bad twin. Nor shall I deny that the marquess treats you in a like manner. But what have you ever done to alter their opinions? Nothing that I can see. And I refuse to feel sorry for someone who has spent a great deal too much of his life doing the thing better than I could ever hope to.”

He turned back to stare at her, and hearing the echo of her words, Diana was aghast at what she had said. Would she never learn to keep her thoughts to herself? Why must they spill out as though she had no control over them at all? Lord Roderick’s face was suffused with anger, and she could scarcely blame him. Who was she to take him to task? She searched her mind rapidly for words that might unsay those that had gone before.

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